Yet another horrible Trumpeter kit! Xian JH-7

This kit is known for the extreme mistake Trumpeter made in the fuselage height. And as probably they will not redo it (Well, probably not until I finish it after a long long time!), I am trying to correct it and update it to the current in service version, the JH-7A. It has some differences from the FBC-1 the kit is supposed to represent, such as a one piece windscreen (which I will try to make from an Italeri Su-27), twin ventral fins, a wider chord vertical fin (probably a mistake as it seems the same as in the FBC-1) electronic countermeasures. I have ordered the Aires Spey nozzles for the Fujimi F-4K whose plastic nozzles will be donated to this one. Reshaping of the lower nose area underway after second layer of milliput. Any suggestions welcome!

I tried to fit the Su-27 windscreen but it's the wrong curvature, and too wide. I think that the closest fitting one piece windscreen would be from an Italeri/Revell BAe Hawk, problem is I don't have one spare and no one seems to make a vacform replacement for it! Anyone has one spare from this kit please.

Some progress but still more to modify. I had to move the tail fin rearwards, cut the parachute housing to lower it more towards the engine nozzles. The rear area in between the nozzles is being modified, and the Fujimi F-4K nozzles fitted in place nicely. The fences on the main wings were removed and the surfaces rescribed. Now I removed the tailplanes attachment points to lower them according to the photos.

Some more progress. I hope that the outline now looks acceptable with the available photos on the internet. The undercarriage is a little on the thin side in the kit compared to the real aircraft but that has to do for now! Some more sanding on the fin and then to the cockpit (don't we always start at the cockpit ). I still have to remove the anti-flutter weights from the tailplanes as they are not on the production aircraft, only on the prototypes.

Some more progress on this one as well. Made a windscreen for it which turned out to much easier then the Harbin's nose! Also reshaped a little bit the nose, but I will fill up the underside a little bit (Along the yellow line on the photo to make it look better. Presently I am reshaping one of the fuel tanks as it is also incorrectly shaped (along with nearly everything in this kit!). I have also added what I assumed to be RWR antennas on the fin.

A few photos before the airbrushing stage. The corrected fuel tank is seen on the photo I used to correct the kit enlarged to scale on a photocopier. There are still more errors but I shall stop there and leave it as it is. It is much better proportioned than it originally was, and I'm happy with the overall shape as it is. The undercarriage is too thin, but I am not ready to make a new one from scratch!

On seeing these photos side by side, I will try to replace the windscreen with a longer one and sand off some from the top side of the nose cone as it is too curved. The Canopy is a little short and a bit too high which I am willing to correct.

After reshaping the nose and cockpit area, here it is now, airbrushed after a preshading session. I think that the grey I used, AMC grey, is a little dark compared to the Chinese AF examples (it lloked such a good match in the jar!), and the Navy versions are still a little lighter. I still have to retouch some of the engraved panel lines that I scribed as there are some over runs, and a little filler is needed on the tail as well.

Resrayed in Humbrol 40 (Gloss Gull Grey) which seems to be a much better match. I had to redo the preshading, but I left it in a more subtle effect, as all photos I found show well kept aircraft. I have noticed that I have to do some more sanding in front of the canopy as the anti glare panel revealed a humped port side. This one sure was an exercise in sanding and filling!